While it is true that the incident was started by one man’s dog urinating on another man’s lawn, that alone did not immediately lead to violence. When the owner of the nicely manicured lawn confronted the man whose dog had just urinated on it, the man with the dog cursed at him, pushed him, and punched him in the face. So while the dog’s behavior may have been a catalyst for the fatal shooting, the intervening human behavior was a critical part of the problem.

The distinction is important to me because while many people get into altercations over dog behavior such as barking, chasing, or even the people’s failure to pick up after their dogs, it is rarely dog behavior alone that leads to a truly problematic response by a person. It is the reaction of the people involved that causes situations to escalate into arguments, anger and even, on occasion, violent crime.

I’m certainly not saying that someone who yells, pushes and punches deserves to be fatally shot, and I think the situation is still one that involves a huge overreaction with tragic consequences. But I do think that the headlines saying a man shot another man after his dog urinated on his lawn tells only part of the story.